In poverty since employee (male) exposed husband (4,4,2,5)
I believe the answer is:
from hand to mouth
'in poverty' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'since employee male exposed husband' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'since' could be 'from' and 'from' is found in the answer.
'employee' could be 'hand' (hand is a kind of employee) and 'hand' is present in the answer.
'male' could be 'tom' (I've seen this before) and 'tom' is found in the answer.
'exposed' could be 'out' (out on display) and 'out' is found within the answer.
'husband' could be 'h' and 'h' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for from hand to mouth that I've seen before include "How a tot in a high chair eats" , "poverty?" , "The way a baby eats" .)